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The original article was published in Harm Reduction Journal 2025 22:6
People who inject drugs (PWID) experience a higher burden of HIV compared to general populations. Social support has been shown to improve disease management and combat stigma for PWID yet remains unexplored a...
People who inject drugs (PWID) remain at high risk for HIV in many countries, including Afghanistan. Previous reports on HIV testing and prevalence in Afghanistan were published in 2012. This study assessed re...
This paper outlines the implementation of opt-out HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) screening at a syringe services program (SSP) in Florida, highlighting its effectiveness in reducing the transmission of these infect...
The COVID-19 pandemic health crisis and its potential implications for people who use drugs (PWUD) created permissive conditions toward social innovation and experimentation. Still, it also exposed gaps in har...
Illicit opioids, including fentanyl, are linked to unprecedented levels of overdose in Canada and elsewhere. The risks associated with illicit opioids can include high potency, unpredictable concentration and ...
The Correction to this article has been published in Harm Reduction Journal 2025 22:62
People who use drugs (PWUD) are at increased mortality risk, yet they typically avoid healthcare settings due to stigma and shunning. Understanding the healthcare journey from the viewpoint of PWUD has been un...
The second wave of integrated bio-behavioural surveys was conducted among people who inject drugs (PWID) in the cities of Zagreb, Split, and Rijeka in Croatia to estimate the prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C ...
Substance use treatment (SUT) and harm reduction are often perceived as having distinct goals despite people who use drugs routinely having needs that encompass both services. The co-occurring SUT and harm red...
Co-use of benzodiazepines and/or ‘z-drugs’ along with opioids is linked to the rise in drug related deaths (DRD) in the UK. Understanding patterns of co-use could inform harm reduction strategies for reducing ...
In the early 1990s, the spread of HIV among heroin injectors prompted a shift in drug policy internationally, including in France. This led to the emergence of a new policy known as Harm Reduction (HR) and rel...
To combat the public health concern that is problem gambling, gambling operators are increasingly being required by legislation to exercise a duty of care obligation, including the provision of Responsible Gam...
People who inject drugs (PWID) are more likely to engage in unsafe sexual behavior placing them at high risk of acquiring HIV and other STIs. This study aims to assess the prevalence and predictors of inconsis...
Opioid overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) is an evidence-based strategy to reduce opioid overdose deaths in line with guidance provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nation...
Heated tobacco products (HTPs) deliver nicotine with significantly lower toxicant exposure relative to combustible cigarettes. HTPs may serve as viable tobacco harm reduction options for adults who smoke but a...
Intersectional stigma of drug-use and HIV hinders provision and utilization of HIV prevention services for people who inject drugs (PWID), particularly within rural US communities. Resilience and coping may be...
The use of psychoactive substances is a key public health issue due to its impact on mental, physical, and social health. Integrated drug checking is a well-known harm reduction and addiction prevention measur...
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection remains a public health threat. Although therapy with direct-acting antivirals made its elimination possible, major challenges remain in treating vulnerable populations, such ...
Online gambling products involve a heightened risk of harm, but there are some possibilities to prevent and reduce these harms. Notably, mandatory identification in online gambling environments allows for a ra...
Traditional treatment approaches for prescription-type opioid use disorder (POUD), centered on abstinence, have limitations and hinder the development of interventions that meet the needs of people with POUD. ...
Drug-related harm is a significant public health concern in the UK, particularly among underserved groups such as gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM). This study explores the role of nig...
The state of Louisiana ranked 4th in the US for per capita overdose rates as 56 out of 100,000 persons died due to overdose and 1,300 of those deaths involved opioids. Opioid involved deaths increased 131% bet...
The City of Boston has faced unprecedented challenges with substance use amidst changes to the illicit drug supply and increased visibility of homelessness. Among its responses, Boston developed six low thresh...
The introduction of Direct-Acting Antivirals (DAAs) transformed Hepatitis C (HCV) treatment, despite this uptake of DAAs remains lower than required to meet the WHO Sustainable Development Goal (3.3). Treatmen...
Canadian Veterans experiencing chronic pain report concerns about accessing accurate information on the risks associated with medical cannabis (MC) use. The Lower Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines (LRCUG) were deve...
People in justice settings experience higher rates of psychiatric morbidity, including alcohol and drug use disorders, compared with the general population. However, our understanding of opioid-related harms i...
In the United States, complete abstinence persists as the standard for demonstrating recovery success from substance use disorders (SUDs), apart from alcohol use disorder (AUD). Although the FDA has recently i...
Scotland currently has amongst the highest rates of drug-related deaths in Europe, leading to increased advocacy for safer drug consumption facilities (SDCFs) to be piloted in the country. In response to conce...
The Correction to this article has been published in Harm Reduction Journal 2025 22:33
Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and its precursors gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) and 1,4-butanediol (BD) have become a significant concern due to the increase in their recreational use and the high risks associated wi...
Ensuring consistent adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is crucial for effective HIV treatment and achieving viral suppression. Within prisons, the prevalence of HIV is notably high, and incarcerated ind...
The global emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 posed unprecedented challenges to healthcare systems, disrupting routine services and necessitating swift adaptations. Harm reduction programs, vital for a...
Xylazine is a α2-adrenergic receptor agonist, used for sedation in veterinary contexts. Although it is increasingly found in overdose deaths across North America, the clinical management of xylazine-involved o...
Taxation can be used to direct consumption and provision of harmful commodities. Prior research on gambling taxation has nevertheless been inconclusive on whether this can also apply to gambling. In gambling p...
Little attention has been paid to the experiences of clinicians and health personnel who provide heroin-assisted treatment (HAT). This study provides the first empirical findings about the clinicians’ experien...
Use of combustible cigarettes (CCs) and smokeless oral tobacco products are well documented risk factors for a variety of oral diseases. However, the potential oral health risks of using recently introduced (s...
Despite Iran’s prohibition politics regarding alcoholic beverages consumption, marketing, and trading, there is a flourishing black market. Often, alcohol producers on this black market do not adhere alcohol p...
The assessment of potential health effects of switching from cigarette smoking to non-combustible tobacco products has important implications for public health and regulatory decisions. Robust epidemiological ...
Preloading of alcohol and/or drugs before an event has been examined in the research literature for the past two decades. Despite the considerable interest and scrutiny on the behaviour, there are limited, if ...
Considering opioid use disorder (OUD) as one of the major global concerns, methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) has been documented the core treatment for such dependence in the affected individuals. With reg...
Protecting individual anonymity is a common practice in harm reduction (HR), as it can mitigate the fears that may prevent people from accessing services. Protecting anonymity usually means applying for servic...
HIV disproportionately impacts people who experience incarceration. Incarceration represents an opportunity to engage in HIV prevention care for individuals who often experience a number of barriers accessing ...
People who inject drugs (PWID) are at high risk of blood-borne infections, and injection drug use contributes significantly to hepatitis C virus (HCV) transmission. The WHO has therefore set targets of reducin...
We aimed to identify motivators for people who inject drugs to pursue treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and uncover opportunities that could make treatment more appealing.
Despite the established effectiveness and relatively widespread availability of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder, individuals seeking treatment frequently encounter various structural and social barriers, i...
Harm Reduction, conceptualized by Russell Newcombe in the late 1980s, has revolutionized how drug use, individuals who use drugs, and drug policies are understood globally. Emerging from the HIV/AIDS crisis, H...
Harm reduction for people who use drugs (PWUD) is an established evidence-based practice that encompasses a wide variety of services, delivery formats, and settings and has been named a priority in US drug pol...
Injectable opioid agonist treatment (iOAT) is a valuable, patient-centred, evidence based intervention. However, limited information exists on contextual factors that may support or hinder iOAT implementation ...
People who use drugs are among the most socially excluded groups in Europe. Qualitative research on Drug Consumption Rooms (DCRs) has reported various benefits to clients, including increased feelings of well-...
Support for a human rights framework for drug policy has been growing for some years. This year, the UNODC published a chapter in the World Drug Report focussed on the right to health. In this paper, we draw a...
The original article was published in Harm Reduction Journal 2024 21:185
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